CIA like 'Inspector Clousseau'

[slipperduke]

<http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/duncan_campbell/2006/11/post_689.html>

"There have now been, according to the Cuban security service, no fewer than 638 plots to kill Castro, either directly organised by the CIA or their many proxies. The attempts have been annotated by two of Castro's top minders, Fabian Escalante, who has written about them in his book, 638 Maneras de Matar a Castro (638 Ways To Kill Castro) and his colleague, Xavier Solado, who wrote a pamphlet of the same name a few years ago.

"Some of the attempts were a bit like Clousseau," says Peter Moore, the film's executive producer."

[slipperduke]

1. Apparently....

...one of their plans was to smoke out a TV studio with LSD-infused gas and make Castro trip out live on air!

[MADem]

2. Why go after the guy...unless he killed Kennedy?

It makes no sense otherwise. Who gives a shit if he was friends with the Russkies. The Cold War was one thing, but after that shit the bed, there was no point in carrying on. Hell, the Egyptians, our former enemy the Vietnamese and a host of other nations all cozied up to Moscow, and we got over that. To continue to sanction the guy, after all this time, makes it apparent that he is in the "Unforgiven" category for doing a very bad thing.

....the exploding cigar, the ballpoint hypodermic syringe, the gift of a poisoned wetsuit, others more traditional. Dollan Cannell, the film's director, says that the plots seem to have failed through a mixture of incompetence, chance and bad timing. "The CIA had to do it without being blamed for it," says Cannell. "There had to be no smoking gun."

Castro has now seen off no fewer than eight American presidents, many of whom, Cannell believes, must have sanctioned the various attempted hits. John F Kennedy even asked Bond creator, Ian Fleming, for suggestions and there were plans to outsource the job to the Mafia.

"We can be 100 per cent sure that Eisenhower and Kennedy signed off on them," says Cannell. "And I think you could say that probably also Johnson and Nixon agreed to them. Jimmy Carter told us when we met him during the making of the film that he did not."

Two of the chief anti-Castro plotters agreed to participate in the film: Orlando Bosch, weakened by a stroke, and Luis Posada, who is currently wanted in both Cuba and Venezuela in connection with the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner. Anti-Castro exiles were happy to help, says Moore. "The title sounds so different to the ears of people in Miami," he says. "It seems to them like a pretty good idea. There is no shame about being involved in the plots amongst the exile community. They (the would-be assassins) are pretty much regarded as heroes. And there are still people who are only embarrassed that they didn't succeed."
...

[Demeter]

3. US Businesses Lost Property in the Revolution

and Cuban emigre's put lots of money into the GOP. The Mob wasn't too happy, either.

[MADem]

4. It ain't enough, IMO, to continue to isolate him, absent a murder of a sitting leader

Hell, look at the dough we sunk into Cam Rahn Bay in Vietnam. That was a state-of-the-art port that the Russkies got to enjoy after we bailed outta there. And that's just one abandoned facility of many. We lost a royal bundle there.

We got over that!!! Surely, we can get over Cuba...unless, of course, we KNOW that Fidel offed Johnny. And I think that's the explanation, myself. We'll see, assuming Fidel doesn't live forever (and he well could, he's a tough old coot).

As for the GOP, it hasn't always been the GOP in charge, yet even when LBJ was President, Carter, Clinton...the policy never changed. There was the occasional odd talk, but it never went anywhere. And the fact is that many Americans would have a hard time if, after rapproachment, they discovered that Fidel had killed Camelot. It just wouldn't go over well atall...

We might be able to deal with it after he dies, but even at that, it'll be a bit of a rough slog for a bit....

[Demeter]

5. I Think It's an Addiction, Like Smoking, or a Delusion, Like Religion

and I'm more and more certain that the BFEE had a lot to do with both Kennedy and maybe even the MLK assassinations.